The Context of White Supremacy welcomes Dr. Valerie B. Yerger. An Associate Professor of Health Policy in the Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences and in the Center for Tobacco Control Research Education, Dr. Yerger investigates tobacco usage as a social justice issue that disproportionately harms black people. She’s devoted years examining the tobacco industry’s internal documents which reveal an extensive relationship with African American leadership groups and journalists. Dr. Yerger submits that this partnership was more beneficial to the cigarette empire because in addition to their product being promoted, their ideas and concepts were covertly communicated to black people. We’ll discuss the renewed effort to ban menthol cigarettes, which account for roughly a third of all cigarettes sold in the U.S. Menthol cigarettes are the overwhelmingly preferred brand of black smokers; however, this is likely the product of Whites deliberately targeting blacks with this brand.